User Reviews

"Mysterious Skin" is a mysterious movie. Not mysterious in a boring, unoriginal way, where the screenwriter screws you around with information; mysterious in the way that the characters are opening up in front of you, and yet they're still enigmas; their depths hidden in plain view. It is the story of two teenage boys who were both sexually abused by the same man when they were younger. You already probably think the movie is dark and heavy, but it's not; it imposes no message on the viewer, and does not come to any easy conclusions. It has a strange tone throughout – a little like remembering something terrible and being unable to deal with it properly.

The movie has a lot of sex in it, but it does not comment on the sex. Sex is just an important part of the characters' lives - to Neil because he is gay and enjoys sex with older men (he works as a rent boy); to Brian because he is not sexually driven, and is surrounded by something he wants no part of.

When the two boys were younger, they were sexually abused by their gym teacher, played by Bill Sage. Neil remembers this almost with fondness; the beginning of his sexual exploration. Brian can't remember it at all; he blanked the episode out of his memory. The movie follow Brian through his journey to find out what happened during those holes in his memory, and Neil on his sad, slow decline from happiness.

While Brian is seeking him out, Neil earns enough money to travel to New York, where he continues his lifestyle until, in a scene I found difficult to watch, he is drugged, beaten and raped by one of his clients, after which he goes back home to his mother (played by Elisabeth Shue). Eventually, Brian tracks him down to find out what happened to him when he was younger.

This could easily have been the material for a heavy drama that forces a message down the audience's throat, but what makes "Mysterious Skin" so good is its refusal to resort to black and white morals. It is true that the gym teacher is under-developed as a character, but at least he isn't shown as a two-dimensional bad guy; children who are victims of abuse often like the abuser, and it is brave of the movie to suggest that Neil actually enjoyed it at the time, not knowing how it would affect him later in life, or what was being done to him. People may find this aspect of the movie makes them uncomfortable, but it is supposed to. It's rare to find movies so honest about victims of abuse.

The movie has a certain tone that's a little difficult to place; a certain lightness in details such as Brian's theory that he was abducted by aliens during his black-outs. It's not levity; more the feeling of trying to tolerate a damaged life. It has a certain erotic charge; it doesn't deny that Neil enjoys sex, nor does it suggest that he would have been straight and 'normal' were he not abused – the audience is left to decide the extent of the damage done to these boys. Some people don't like movies like that; they want the movie to do all the work for them, and give them a neat little message that they probably already know. I prefer challenging movies that dare to go to new places. Such movies are not always good, but they are always interesting.

It's difficult to get "Mysterious Skin" out of your head after you see it, and part of its strength comes from the two leads: Brady Corbet as Brian, and especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil. I knew the latter actor from his goofy role in "3rd Rock From the Sun," and was amazed by his work here.

"Mysterious Skin" ends with the image of Neil and Brian in the old house of their coach, Brian lying with his head on Neil's lap, and it's the performances that make the image haunting. It's not sexual attraction that brings them together, but need and confusion. Poor guys. Brian blanked out the episodes because he couldn't face the truth, and Neil can't face it either, though he thinks he can. He even convinces himself he's happy. The smiling, friendly coach damaged them more than they know, but the movie's strength is in the fact that it doesn't make us pity them.

This movie is mysterious to most people as it might go under the radar as it's deals with personal social issues in society such as homosexuality, child on child abuse, and prostitutes. It's hard to find anyways due to the subject matter and it being rated NC-17 in some areas and R in others. Surprising it was banned in Australia for a while. If you are homophobic, you might not like this movie. Honestly, you don't see much nudity, but a few ass shots, cruel language, and sex sounds. Some of the sex acts are bit hilarious to me, like the big guy asking a skinny guy to rammed him in the butt, or the whole talk about fisting. It's outrageous to me since I rarely know people that like that sex acts, but there is people out there that like to do those kinky stuff. Most audiences members will probably not watch a movie like this for entertainment reasons because of such taboos subjects. I would agree that this movie is not for the normal movie watcher, but for mature audiences looking for a movie to look deeper into these social issues and explain more and more why these subjects are deemed improper to talk about. First off, like the book by Scott Heim, the movie is disturbing. Not because of the homosexual acts so much, but because of the pedophile scenes and the whole male rape scene. I'd be grossed out the same amount even if it happen to a girl. I just don't like seeing rape, and child molested. It didn't help that the actor playing the Coach (Bill Sage) look like a young Robert Redford and the young man who grew up to be a male prostitute Neil McCormick is played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. I can't help thinking of this movie being Angels in the Outfield (1994) and the Natural (1980) mixed in a blender with My Own Private Idaho (1991). I do find the beginning parts very hard to watch though. While this is happening, a smart withdrawn young man Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet) is looking for the truth about his past. Brian Lackey is determined to discover what happened during an amnesia blackout when he was eight years old. He believes he was abducted by aliens, and believes that Neil McCormick may be the key as to exactly what happened that night. Without spoiling it, the movie is pretty predictable. You pretty much know what happen to Brian. The UFO and Aliens storyline was weird in the beginning but it all made sense in the end. The acting is pretty good. Both Joseph Gordon Levitt and Brady Corbet were good at their roles. About, Brady Corbet's role, I have to say, he was great. Too bad, it didn't state out. I was kinda confused, because his look and character was way too similar to Lucas's (1986), Lucas Bly character played by Corey Haims. I have to say, I love the women leads, such as Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) who plays Neil's friend trying to save him from his dangerous life as a hustler. The other one is Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub) who befriends Brian due to their share interest of aliens. I felt sorry for her character, and wonder why she believes she was abducted by aliens. Seeing her use of the cane, can only help explain a bit of that. I would had love a follow up of that character in the end, in my opinion. Gregg Araki did a fantastic making this film. Still there were some things that I would have like to be worked better on. The beginning felt more like a novel than a movie. It's starts with Neil narrating, and follow up with Brians. Then it's stops, and picks up again in the end, with Neil narrating yet again without Brian's closure narrating. If you going to make a movie, show, don't tell. If you going to have narrating, have one narrator, not two. Also, continue the narrating throughout the film. It felt sloppy and cut to pieces. Also the scenes were too short. It felt like every scene end with fade out. It would have been better to combined scenes together to make them longer. The movie drags way too long. I also didn't like the molested scenes with the child actors. I know those scenes were selectively edited. The children didn't know the context of their parts when they were filmed, but it's felt too real for me. While, I'm not gay, I don't believe being molested, makes you gay. If that were true, counting all the gay people in the world, we have a gross abundance of pedophiles and neglectful parents in our society. Child molesters, whether they molest the opposite sex or the same sex, find the most vulnerable children, lure them in, and use that trust to abuse them. Being molested doesn't change a person's sexual orientation, but it does damage them psychologically as you can see in the movie with Brian and Neil. One may act out in a self-destructive way, while the other would be more closed up. I don't think Brian was even gay. I'm not 100% sure. I didn't read the novel. It's interesting, where they went with character development, while not grand on a certain scale it was still.really powerful. The end, kind of left me feeling.a little hollow. Poor Brian, and poor Neil. I kept thinking 'I want there to be emotional closure for them'. I guess it's more realistic this way. Overall: not for everybody, but a phenomenal raw movie.

In 1981, Brian Lackey suffered from blackouts and bloody noses. His family is crumbling. He and his mother saw a UFO. Neil McCormick had sexual feelings for the baseball coach. His neglectful single mom (Elisabeth Shue) would leave him alone and the coach would spend time alone with him. In 1983, Neil and Wendy take another boy during Halloween and end up abusing him. Brian is taken by a man and has another blackout episode. In 1987, Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is 15 and selling himself. Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) has a unrequited crush on the homosexual Neil. In 1991, Brian (Brady Corbet) sees Avalyn Friesen (Mary Lynn Rajskub) on a TV show about real alien experiences. She helps him investigate his blackouts. Neil leaves and follows Wendy to NYC. Brian finds Neil's friend Eric and his mother.

The child abuse is creepy as hell. I think it's a mistake to portray so much of it especially early on. First, it's a high hurdle to clear for most audience. Second, it takes away from the shock of the reveal at the end. Overall, this is a good disturbing movie. JGL is amazing in this movie. While much of this movie is about Brian, JGL keeps making Neil the lead.

First of all let me just say that i was really looking forward to 'Mysterious Skin', I had read and heard a lot about the story itself and the themes and situations it was based on. Hearing about it i immediately thought that this sounded like my type of movie. I wasn't wrong, on paper this is the type of story that really draws me in with characters and situations that i can really relate to.

However, When i finally did see 'Mysterious Skin' i honestly felt completely let down. A project which for me had so much potential to really blow me away, and affect me in a way that very few films are able to these days, ended up being a major disappointment in more ways than one.

To begin with i really thought that the actors (in central roles) just weren't good enough to carry the weighty subject matter. I like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and was really interested to see him in this role but unfortunately i just didn't believe him as Neil, there were a couple of redeeming points (for instance, when the three friends are threatened by the guy with a gun in the pick-up, and Neil hangs out of the car window howling) but for the most part i found his performance to be heavy handed and obvious in a way that wouldn't let me accept him as the character. It's not like i don't like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, i do. i really wanted him to rise to the level that this role demanded but i never felt he did. Then there's Michelle Trachtenberg, Who despite what people may say can act, but for me her character in this was just too one dimensional, too simple, there was just no depth to her, and i really didn't feel the ultimate friendship bond between them (wendy & neil) either. On the other hand i did feel that Elisabeth Shue was very effective in her role as neil's mother, and similarly Chase Ellison and Bill Sage both gave excellent performances in their smaller parts, but sadly this did nothing to counteract the other central performances which were left lacking.

I've heard so many people describe this movie as beautiful, disturbing, difficult to watch, powerful and highly realistic, for me none of these seemed appropriate. There are several nice touches throughout the movie but i never got emotionally involved with the main characters (which i mainly attribute to their performances), this meant that when the director started to crank up the explicit scenes and the characters found themselves in more and more difficult situations i just didn't really care that much. The pivotal rape which really ought to be one of the most powerful and disturbing scene's in the film (although shocking due to the physicality of the action) left me feeling that if only it had been shot differently with more attention paid to certain details that it would have been much more effective.

The other thing that really bothered me about the movie was the clean finish that seemed to be prevalent throughout, a great example of this for me was Michelle Trachtenberg's look. I understand that she is a beautiful girl and there is nothing you can do about that, but it just didn't feel conducive with the character (a young small town girl, with no prospects, no visible parents and a prostitute for a best friend) to have her looking so good and well made up throughout. This also bothered me about the look of Neil after the rape. I guess i'm trying to say it just didn't feel gritty enough to come across as believable to me, and certainly not enough to seriously disturb or affect me.

In short, my conclusions are that even thought this story appeals to me so much the actual execution of the production itself has delivered a bland, heavy handed, boring in places, ineffective movie with a central performance that just didn't fill the shoes of Neil's character and in doing so this (coupled with bad scripting and shallow supporting figures) put the whole picture out of balance.

I wanted to like this movie, Believe me i did. But it simply was not good enough.

"Mysterious Skin" is right on the mark. Araki explores ten years in the lives of two youths who were abused as children. Araki shows how each youth struggles to get a grip on some sort of normality in life. Importantly he also shows the abuser's self-justification process.

We are given a hell of a lot of brain exercise during this film. It is by equal amounts compelling, moving, beautiful and shocking.

We see that although the youths' parents were not directly to blame for the abuse, they certainly contributed through indifference or inaction. Hopefully viewers will be strongly inclined to take a proactive interest in the empowerment and protection of their children. Child abuse affects the victim for life.

Mysterious Skin deserves to reach the widest possible audience, but I would caution that victims of sexual abuse may find this film to be very traumatic. They should go with a trusted friend, and have access to suitable counseling.

Watching it, is disturbing. It is very disturbing. It's uncomfortable. Sexual assault after sexual assault, you don't want to watch it anymore. Focusing on the characters and their actions. Beautiful, hesrt breaking. Piecing together that Brian wasn't abducted by aliens, seeing now Neil acts as a result of his upbringing and associated childhood trauma, rough, but beautiful.